Speak
by Chibi Cheesecake
Summary: She had been holding all her secrets in her heart, waiting for the right day the right day to tell him her name was Rin.


** Speak**

**Disclaimer: **Inuyasha, Sesshomaru and friends belong to their respective owners.

**Notes: **Just a random drabble that popped into my head one night. Sesshomaru's kinda tricky to write.

**-o-o-o-o-**

She'd finally spoken to him. The first word she'd said to him was, "No!"

Actually it wasn't correct to say she'd spoken it - more like she had screamed it.

"Foolish girl," Jaken was muttering. What else would she expect, from a fearful demon such as Sesshomaru-sama? And besides, it was her fault Sesshomaru-sama had transformed in the first place. After all, if those demons hadn't come along, wishing to eat her...Those demons had been very weak, very lowly demons, but they'd been large, nonetheless. Sesshomaru-sama would not have been able to take care of them easily had he not transformed into his true form.

Jaken and his master had been walking along in silence. True, it was not unusual for Sesshomaru to stay so quiet, but today his silence seemed different.

Sesshomaru was lost in his thoughts, though he'd never admit it. Hadn't Inuyasha been afraid of his true form as well, when they were younger...? Inuyasha had grown up all wrong, despite having one such as Sesshomaru for a brother. But then, perhaps it was to be expected from a half-breed.

He had gotten the girl a yukata, to replace the filthy, threadbare pink one she used to wear. If she were going to stay with him, he had said, he would not tolerate her smelling like _that_.

He had never learned the girl's name. He wondered, yet again, why he cared.

He'd asked her more than once what her name was, but every time she'd just look up at him with wide, confused brown eyes. More than once he'd wondered if perhaps she was deaf and dumb. But when Jaken would hound her with the same question, she'd just shake her head, and when she thought no one was looking she'd stick her tongue out at the toad demon. But Sesshomaru noticed.

Humans were truly disgusting, to abuse their young so cruelly. Humans were why the girl did not speak. Sesshomaru did not know exactly _why_, but he knew it was humans. It had to be humans.

What would happen to her, if the humans found her again...? They had beaten her. Sesshomaru had known that for sure. Even if she did not meet the same humans from her village, the same thing could happen with any human.

She would die, and no one would know her name.

"Jaken."

"Sesshomaru-sama?"

"We are not leaving just yet." Sesshomaru turned and walked in the direction they had just came.

**-o-o-o-o-**

In the adjacent forest there was a little girl, hiding snug inside a hollow tree stump. She wrapped her arms around her knees and drew them to her chest, swallowing back the rest of her tears.

His eyes had widened and turned the color of blood... Sesshomaru-sama had turned into a dog-demon.

She had wanted to speak to him. She had been holding all her secrets in her heart, waiting for the right day; the right day to tell him her name was Rin. Then she would tell him about her mother working to feed the family, and her father, coming home and telling his children stories. She would tell him about her big brother and her little brother.

But she didn't want to tell him about the mean men who had killed her family. Whenever she thought about those men, she felt a pain in her chest and a knot in her stomach, and sometimes she would get dizzy trying to understand why the men had killed her family.

None of that she would tell Sesshomaru-sama now. She doubted now that he would even care if she told him.

Then, she heard footsteps. They were very, very quiet; but then at the moment so was she, and she could easily hear the owner gliding over the dead leaves.

She held her breath, squeezing her eyes shut.

"S-S-Sesshomaru-sama, what are we doing here?"

Her eyes widened. She knew that voice.

Suddenly the little bit of sunlight that had filtered into her hiding place was blocked, and she lifted her tearstained face. Hard, slight confused golden eyes met warm, very confused brown ones.

"Do you understand, girl, that those demons wanted you?" he asked, seeing her flinch at his gaze.

She looked up at him, understanding lighting up her eyes. She was ecstatic. He _did_ care, after all. He'd been protecting her, and how he'd come to get her.

"Come here, girl," he said then, straightening up and lowering his arm into the stump. She reached up for him and his arm tightened around her waist, pulling her out and setting her gently on the ground.

She swayed a bit, unsteady on her feet after sitting so still and so cramped. She fell forward and caught herself on his pants leg.

"Watch yourself, girl," he said, steadying her.

She shook her head, looking up at him again. "Rin."

"What is that supposed to mean?" he asked flatly.

"M-my name... is Rin."

"...I see."

With that, he turned and began to walk away. "We're going," he said.

Jaken scurried after him and the girl, Rin, stumbled along too. "W-wait for me," she said, her voice echoing in her head and sounding very strange indeed.

"Wait for me, Sesshomaru-sama," she said again, if only to hear his name on her lips. After all, she knew now that he would wait.


End file.
